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Biology/Allied Health Fields Courses

Environmental Science/Natural History

College Learning Outcomes:

1. Written, Oral and Visual Communication: Communicate effectively in writing, orally and/or visually using traditional and/or modern information resources and supporting technology.
2. Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning: Locate, identify, collect, and organize data in order to then analyze, interpret or evaluate it using mathematical skills and/or the scientific method.
3. Critical Thinking: Differentiate between facts, influences, opinions, and assumptions to reach reasoned and supportable conclusions.
4. Problem Solving: Recognize and identify the components of a problem or issue, look at it from multiple perspectives and investigate ways to resolve it.
5. Information Literacy: Formulate strategies to locate, evaluate and apply information from a variety of sources - print and/or electronic.

Links to each sub-section

Biology:MS_L_Biology
Environmental Science: MS_L_EnvScience
Natural History: MS_L_NaturalHistory

List of degrees and certificates in each area

Biology: A.S. and Transfer
Biology: Natural History: Certificate
Biology: Environmental Science: Transfer and Skills Certificate
Chemistry: A.S. and Transfer

DON'T FORGET TO SAVE!!!

First: Please rank on a scale of 1 to 5 (5=high) - how important each of these general outcomes are to the various parts of their areas in a matrix as follows:

	Effective Communication		Scientific or Quantitative Reasoning		Critical Thinking		Problem Solving		Information Literacy
Biology
Chemistry
Natural History
Environmental Studies
Allied Health Fields Courses

Next: Look at what your discipline has written previously about Discipline specific SLOs. How do these compare to each of the general college learning outcomes above? (Attached are the full 2007 SLO reports. Below the first section of that report has been copied.

Program Review 2007:
Program Review 2007:
Program Review 2009-2010:
Program Review 2007:
Program Review 2009-2010:
Program Review 2009-2010:

Allied Health:

In our department we teach students to approach problem solving by:

1. clarifying the problem or question, and if necessary, breaking it apart into manageable sub-questions
2. discerning and describing factors that are relevant to the problem and doing appropriate observation and data collection
3. coming up with a possible solution and being able to explicitly state what evidence or line of thinking led to that particular outcome
4. understanding and making peace with the idea that science can never give an absolute answer to any question
5. understanding that scientific problem-solving is not always a linear process
6. having the ability and being willing to go back and revise earlier steps in their problem-solving process as they learn more
7. being aware of and amenable to peer review (the scrutiny of their work by others skilled in the field) and also being aware that

Biology:

1. Skills in experimental design, hypothesis testing, critical thinking, problem solving, observation, data collection and record keeping, data analysis and interpretation, use of laboratory and field instrumentation and techniques, information retrieval and evaluation, written and oral communication, and working as part of a team. In this context, students will learn to question and evaluate biological ideas.
2. A positive attitude toward biology, an appreciation for the value of living systems and bioethics, a desire for life-long learning, and an realization that scientific investigations involve creativity, ingenuity, and imagination.
3. Mastery of biological principles and concepts and their interrelationships, and an understanding of the unifying role in biology of evolution and biodiversity, and the dynamics of biological systems.
4. An understanding of major biological concepts and awareness of how these are connected within various areas of the biological and physical sciences.
5. An appreciation of science as an integral part of society and everyday life.
6. The ability to evaluate and discuss contemporary social and ethical issues related to biology and medicine.

Natural History:

Graduates will have a strong fundamental understanding of outdoor science; a rigorous, in-depth knowledge of their specialty; understanding of the principles that guide the design and execution of high-quality teaching. Graduates will be able to teach and to communicate scientific issues and outdoor science to the public.

-- Discipline Problem Solving and Critical Thinking SLOs (from 2005) Where do these SLOs fit in with the general ones? LIFE AND EARTH SCIENCESIn our department we teach students to approach problem solving by

• clarifying the problem or question, and if necessary, breaking it apart into manageable sub-questions
• discerning and describing factors that are relevant to the problem and doing appropriate observation and data collection
• coming up with a possible solution and being able to explicitly state what evidence or line of thinking led to that particular outcome
• understanding and making peace with the idea that science can never give an absolute answer to any question
• understanding that scientific problem-solving is not always a linear process
• having the ability and being willing to go back and revise earlier steps in their problem-solving process as they learn more
• being aware of and amenable to peer review (the scrutiny of their work by others skilled in the field) and also being aware that any of their results and conclusions should be reproducible.

Think about how these programmatic SLOs relate to the College Learning Outcomes above. Feel free to edit, expand or change them. Try to make a program SLO for each College Learning Outcome with scores of 3 or higher on the matrix.

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